The Cool Blue Blog

Weird guitar guy

Bob Dylan appeared at a command performance for his grandson's kindergarden class. Clearly the kids had no idea what treasure was set before them

"The kids have been coming home and telling their parents about the weird man who keeps coming to class to sing scary songs on his guitar.

He's been visiting the school just for fun, but the kids don't appreciate they are in the presence of a musical legend.

"They just think of him as the weird guitar guy."

What's wrong with kids today?

Columbia recording artist Bob Dylan

The Way Cool Wife and I drove down to Pittsfield, Mass in the Berkshires to see the Bob Dylan show at Wahconah Park, home of the minor league Pittsfield Mets. The current leg of the Never-Ending Tour is being staged in minor league ball parks throughout the country including a stop at Doubleday Field in Cooperstown, NY on September 2nd.

The linup for all the "Ballpark" shows includes Elana James and the Continental Two (plus one), Junior Brown, and Jimmie Vaughan

First up was "fiddle" player Elana James and she smoked through a set of Bluegrass, Texas Swing and Jazz with an energy that could have lit the stadium. She has a sweet voice, is cute as a bug and can steal the Devil's fiddle from Charlie Daniels. The highlight of her set was a driving "Orange Blossom Special" that left everyone exhausted except Ms James herself: she was quite ready for more. She's a rare talent that literally radiates from the  stage. If things are  even half right with the world, she is going to be a huge talent.

Next up was guitarist extrordinare, Junior Brown. With his tall frame, gravelly bass voice that is a cross between Merle Haggard and Johnny Cash, and his unique hybrid electric/steel guitar, Brown was a real crowd pleaser, and the audience loved his off-beat humorous lyrics (especially well received was "My Wife Thinks Your Dead") and stunning guitar work. He lived up to his reputation and its great to see he hasn't dropped a beat over the years.

These bands took up little stage-space and the setup I was checking out before the show, it turned out, was for Jimmie Vaughan's band. I was especially admiring the pure white B3 Hammond with the similarly ivory colored Leslie's (two of 'em). When Jimmie hit the stage, I discovered what they were for: keyboard player Bob Willis who joined Jimmie's Tilt-a-Whirl band six years ago, a few years after I last saw Vaughan perform live. Bob also uses his B3 to supply the bass lines for the band with a special lower keyboard. But I gotta say, there is simply nothing like a B3 with Leslies in a blues band. Jimmie and the Tilt-a-Whirls had the crowd up on their feet and bogeying.

After Jimmie, the roadies cleared the stage and loaded Bob's set. Now I've seen Bob Dylan in concert maybe 15 or 20 times over the years since I first saw him play with The Band back in 1973 and he's always different. And for the past 15 years or so he's been constantly reworking his classics for stage performance to keep them fresh. But even so, his shows have usually been a mix of rock and folk. And he has always had an acoustic set in the middle. This show was different even from that.

The first thing I noticed was the introduction For as long as I've been going to Dylan shows he's been introduced with something like, "Ladies ands Gentlemen. Please welcome to the stage Columbia recording artist, Boooooob Dylan." This time, there was a short biography:

Next up...the poet laurette of rock'n'roll, the voice of the promise of the 60's counter-culture, the guy who forced folk into bed with rock, who donned make-up in the 70's and disappeared into a haze of substance abuse, who emerged to find Jesus, was written off as a has-been by the end of the 80's, and who suddenly shifted gears, releasing some of the strongest music of his career beginning in the late 90's...Columbia recording artist Bob Dylan.

"Substance abuse"? Now that's different given how private the man is.

The next unusual thing I noticed was that the band was wearing "uniforms", like an R&B revue: all were dressed in maroon suits with black piping and black, bowler-style hats. Bob himself was dressed in back suit with a white shirt. And many of his songs were retooled with an R&B feels.

The other thing was that Bob always played guitar in the past. In fact, in the last few shows I saw before this one, Bob was even trying his hand at playing lead. Not so good. This show, he didn't play guitar at all. Instead, he played keyboards the whole show. And there was no acoustic set at all.

The set list was as follows

1.	Cat's In The Well
2.	You Ain't Goin' Nowhere
3.	Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum
4.	Just Like A Woman
5.	Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again
6.	Million Miles
7.	Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
8.	Desolation Row
9.	I'll Be Your Baby Tonight
10.	Cold Irons Bound
11.	I Shall Be Released
12.	Summer Days
	(encore)
13.	Like A Rolling Stone
14.	Rainy Day Women #12 & 35

No preview of the new album, Modern Times, due out this Tuesday. The highlights of the show to me were the two Time Out of Mind tunes Million Miles and Cold Irons Bound. Both were tight and had great atmosphere but Cold Irons Bound was awesomely dramatic. Summer Days from the Love and Theft album was great rockin' romp that excellent in execution.

Like a Rolling Stone also rocked, but that's been that way forever. And the effect where the lights are turned on the crowd whenever Bob sings "how does it feel" has been unchanged since the first time I saw him and the crowd loves it.

Rainy Day Women ended the show on a rocking high note.

One other song of note was Just Like a Woman. It was tenderly sung and after every verse, Bob would hold back the phrase "just like a woman" and let the crowd sing it in meter while he would rush it at the end. The effect was just great.

Bob's voice was clear, strong, and, when not rushing lyrics, articulate. But his voice does show the wear of his 65 years. Dylan's voice is an acquired taste for sure, but to me it's always been his dynamics and phrasing that made him a great singer, and these remain intact to this day.

All in all, Bob's "Ballpark" tour, or at the very least this show that I saw in Pittsfield, is a great entertainment value for your fifty bucks.

Sweet Disappointment Rapture

So I decided that the best way to spend the bonus money awarded me by my employer was to buy a new guitar. After looking around some, I decided on this.

Sweet huh? It's a Yamaha RGX A2 with dual alnico humbuckers. The body is of a new design which Yamaha calls an Alternative Internal Resonance body and which by all accounts makes the axe very light and resonant.

I ordered it on January 1st from Musicians Friend. The deal was great, $499 included shipping and a Yamaha Magicstomp Stereo Effects Pedal. Cool!

But it was back ordered.

First I was told it would ship on the 6th. When that didn't happen I was told it would ship on the 16th.
When the 16th came around, the order status went from "backordered" to "being packed". Cool!

On the 17th it went from "being packed" to "shipped" and I was given a UPS tracking number. Cool!

The UPS status said it was being shipped 3 day select and was on schedule to arrive on January 20th. Cool!

I anxiously tracked its progress from Kansas City to Missouri to Kentucky to Clemsford, Mass where it arrived at 8:28 AM on Thursday the 19th. Seeing as how I live in Vermont a mere three hour drive away, it should easily be here on the 20th.

But then my guitar disappeared. No departure from Clemsford, Mass was ever recorded nor has it been recorded to date.

When it got to be a 6pm on the 20th and it still hadn't arrived, I called UPS and told them what was going on. They said drivers deliver until 7pm, it'll arrive. I was dubious, no UPS delivery had ever come to my house after 5pm. And, of course I was right.

At 9pm I called UPS again and they said I would have to call Musicians Friend and get them to put a tracer on it. I said, doesn't it have a tracer on it? The status says it arrived in Clemsford, Mass and never left. What does putting a tracer on it do, send out a posse?

So I said OK, and I called Musicians Friend and explained the situation to them. They said they'd put a tracer on it but it may take 5 to 8 days to resolve. I said so I'm out 500 bucks with no guitar for another 5 to 8 days? And then after that what? I wait another month for the guitar which is now backordered until at least the 31st?

They said yeah. They didn't lose it, UPS did.

Yeah, but I didn't order a guitar from UPS. And UPS is busy rounding up a posse because they don't trust their tracking system.

It seems to me both UPS and Musicians Friend should be able to resolve this in something less than 5 to 8 days. I mean it's either in Clemsford or its not! Simple. I mean if it got on truck to someplace else, it would have been scanned, right? It would appear on the tracking page as heading to Fairbanks, Alaska or something, right?

So either its tucked in a corner somewhere at the Clemsford, Mass depot or someone stole the thing, right?

And it shouldn't take 5 to 8 days to figure out which it is.

I'll keep you updated.

UPDATE: So I called UPS this morning and they said I would need to have Musicians Friend put a tracer on it. I said that Musicians Friend had informed me they had done that on Saturday. The UPS customer sevice agent said they had no record of it. So I called Musicians Friend and asked them. They said they had started the trace but nothing had been done yet.

What? I don't get it.

More later.

UPDATE II: Against all odds, the guitar arrived from UPS on my lunch hour. UPS tracking still says it never left Mass. Go figure.

Shock and Awe

On July 25th, 1965 the earth shook and those folk music purists who thought Bob Dylan was one of them, found out otherwise.

And Dylan himself learned a lesson.

[Pete] Seeger announced that the Sunday night final program was a message from today's folk musicians to a newborn baby about the world we live in. Unfortunately, this theme did not correspond to Dylan's conception of his performance.

Secretly, Dylan, Al Kooper (who played organ on the studio version of Like a Rolling Stone) members of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band (guitarist Mike Bloomefield, drummer Sam Lay and bassist Jerome Arnold) and pianist Barry Goldberg had been practicing in a Newport Mansion a set of songs that would rock the socks of the granola crowd. Since Dylan had already released an "electric" album and electric bands had played before at the Newport Folk Festival, Zimmy figured it would be a pleasent surprise for his audience.

they walked onstage, Dylan, in a matador-outlaw orange shirt and black leather, carrying an electric guitar. From the moment the group swung into a rocking electric version of "Maggie's Farm," the Newport audience registered hostility. As the group finished "Farm," there was some reserved applause and a flurry of boos. Someone shouted: "Bring back Cousin Emmy!" The microphones and speakers were all out of balance, and the sound was poor and lopsided. For even the most ardent fan of the new music, the performance was unpersuasive. As Dylan led his band into "Rolling Stone," the audience grew shriller: "Play folk music! ... Sell out! ... This is a folk festival! ... Get rid of that band!" Dylan began "It Takes a Train to Cry," and the applause diminished as the heckling increased. Dylan and the group disappeared offstage, and there was a long, clumsy silence. Peter Yarrow urged Bob to return and gave him his acoustic guitar. As Bob returned on the stage alone, he discovered he didn't have the right harmonica. "What are you doing to me?" Dylan demanded of Yarrow. To shouts for "Tambourine Man," Dylan said: "OK, I'll do that one for you." The older song had a palliative effect and won strong applause. Then Dylan did "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue," singing adieu to Newport, good-bye to the folk-purist audience.

It's always been the case, though, that Dylan defied audience expectations. When people thought he was the voice of the anti-War movement, he wrote love songs. When they thought he was a rock'n'roll icon, he made a country album. When they called him a legend, he produced albums that were less than legendary.

And of course he horrified everyone when he became a Christian.

He shocked aging hippies when his recent "autobiography" Chronicles: Volume One hit the bookstores and they read things like

"When I was in Woodstock, it became very clear to me that the whole counterculture was one big scarecrow wearing dead leaves," he says. "It had no purpose in my life. It's been true ever since, actually."

And then there's the bit about Dylan and guns

People think that fame and riches translate into power, that it brings glory and honor and happiness. Maybe it does, but sometimes it doesn't. I found myself stuck in Woodstock, vulnerable and with a family to protect. If you looked in the press, though, you saw me being portrayed as anything but that. It was surprising how thick the smoke had become. It seems like the world has always needed a scapegoat—someone to lead the charge against the Roman Empire. But America wasn't the Roman Empire and someone else would have to step up and volunteer. I really was never any more than what I was—a folk musician who gazed into the gray mist with tear-blinded eyes and made up songs that floated in a luminous haze. Now it had blown up in my face and was hanging over me. I wasn't a preacher performing miracles. It would have driven anybody mad.

Early on, Woodstock had been very hospitable to us. I had actually discovered the place long before moving there. Once, at night, driving down from Syracuse after playing a show, I told my manager about the town. We were going to be driving right by it. He said he was looking for a place to buy a country house. We drove through the town, he spied a house he liked and bought it there and then. I had bought one later on, and it was in this same house that intruders started to break in day and night. Tensions mounted almost immediately and peace was hard to come by. At one time the place had been a quiet refuge, but now, no more. Roadmaps to our homestead must have been posted in all fifty states for gangs of dropouts and druggies. Moochers showed up from as far away as California on pilgrimages. Goons were breaking into our place all hours of the night. At first, it was merely the nomadic homeless making illegal entry—seemed harmless enough, but then rogue radicals looking for the Prince of Protest began to arrive—unaccountable-looking characters, gargoyle-looking gals, scarecrows, stragglers looking to party, raid the pantry. Peter LaFarge, a folksinger friend of mine, had given me a couple of Colt single-shot repeater pistols, and I also had a clip-fed Winchester blasting rifle around, but it was awful to think about what could be done with those things. The authorities, the chief of police (Woodstock had about three cops) had told me that if anyone was shot accidentally or even shot at as a warning, it would be me that would be going to the lockup. Not only that, but creeps thumping their boots across our roof could even take me to court if any of them fell off. This was so unsettling. I wanted to set fire to these people. These gate-crashers, spooks, trespassers, demagogues were all disrupting my home life and the fact that I was not to piss them off or they could press charges really didn't appeal to me. Each day and night was fraught with difficulties. Everything was wrong, the world was absurd. It was backing me into a corner. Even persons near and dear offered no relief.

He's still horrifing and defying those who think they "get" him. Recently he made an exclusive deal with Starbucks; a company hated by every true-blue burkenstock-wearin', granola crunchin', tatooed, dreadlocked, pierced anti-establishment type from the left coast of New England to the Left Coast of America.

Starbucks, the ubiquitous coffee chain, has signed an exclusive deal with Bob Dylan, the revered music legend. Under the deal, Starbucks will hold first rights to sell Bob Dylan: Live at the Gaslight 1962. The album will be available at the 44,000 Starbucks locations in North America August 30th, and at other stores after 18 months. Having an album sold at a coffee shop is pretty much full circle for Dylan, who often played coffee shops in the early years of his career. Bob Dylan: Live at the Gaslight 1962 consists of ten live tracks recorded at New York's Gaslight Cafe. Bootlegs of the recordings have long circulated, but have recently been restored.

There is little doubt that Dylan's music has contributed in a big way to the soundtrack of my life. And I reveled every time he did a turn and alienated the audience that most recently claimed to be his true-blue fans.

So here we are, on the 40th Anniversary of the first time he did turned his audience against him and all I can think is

Took an untrodden path once, where the swift don't win the race,
It goes to the worthy, who can divide the word of truth.
Took a stranger to teach me, to look into justice's beautiful face
And to see an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

I and I
In creation where one's nature neither honors nor forgives.
I and I
One says to the other, no man sees my face and lives.

Discover Jazz

Burlington's Discover Jazz Festival starts tomorrow. And believe me when I tell you this is way cool.

Between then and the 12th when it ends, there will be scores of free music events on multiple stages and venues throughout the city of Burlington. There will also be a number of high power concerts which will cost you bucks, but will be well worth the time and money.

Burlington Town Center (aka Church St) itself will have a number of stages with free blues, jazz and gospel (no rock or rap, thank you) going on almost nonstop for the ten days of the festival. Events will also be ongoing down by the Waterfront, in City Hall Park and in various other venues such as the Flynn Theater.

The weatherman is predicting a beautiful weekend and I'll be down town jumpin' and groovin' and photographing what events I can. One of my favorites events will take place on Sunday afternoon (12th) at the Waterfront where they will have Gospel Tent set up. For free!

Unfortunately, business will be taking me away next week to Seattle so unless I have some real good luck, I'll be missing Buckwheat Zydeco's show at the Blues Tent on Thursday (I still haven't given up hope on this).

You can read my blog entries from last year here, here and (for completeness) here. And you can view the other photos I took during the event here.

See you hipsters (but not hopsters) there.

The King of the Blues is 79

Riley "BB" King is 79 years old today and still performing. He's a little slower these days, and spends less time on stage, but his voice is still strong, his fingers are still nimble, and he's still a very generous and gregarious performer.

I've probably seen him in concert more than five times over the years. It used to be that his 7 piece band would play a jazzy opening piece and then The King would step out on stage and play for an hour and a half.

Then, it got to the point where he would do a few songs standing up and then sit for the rest of the show.

More recently, his band plays about three songs, then BB will come out and sit for the whole show.

But it doesn't matter. He still puts on a great show and he still does a generous meet-and-greet after the show.

The man will likely not be performing much longer. Don't miss your chance to see a wonderful man and performer.

I got a bad case of love
I got a bad case of love
I got a bad case of love
I got a bad case of love
I got a bad case of love
People, my heart is filled with misery

I live in loneliness, never get no rest
Went to see a love doctor to get out of this mess
Took a look at me before he cast his spell
Shook his head, then began to yell

You got a bad case of love
You got a bad case of love
You got a bad case of love
Boy, your heart is filled with misery

I said, doctor, doctor, please do something for me
I feel like a man going through the third degree
Can’t sleep at night, can’t eat a bite
Since she been gone nothing ever goes right

He said, son, I know just how you feel
You love your baby and you always will
But your wind is short, your pulse is weak
It won’t be long before you’re six feet deep

You got a bad case of love
You got a bad case of love
You got a bad case of love
Boy, your heart is filled with misery

-BB King

Your Daughters and Your Sons

We went up to Church St today. To enjoy the beautiful day we decided to eat outside at one of the many places in which this is available. But because today was the Burlington Fall Festival, something we didn't know beforehand, and because it was dinner time, most of our usual haunts didn't have any outside seating available.

The Rusty Scuffer, located at the bottom of Church Street had both suitable cuisine and available seating. And it turned out that the Woods Tea Company was set up to play an outdoor concert right across the street from us so we would have some great folk music played by some really terrific musicians while we ate.

And during our meal, on this beautiful September 11th they played the perfect song: Daughters and Sons

YOUR DAUGHTERS AND YOUR SONS (Tommy Sands)

They wouldn't hear your music
And they pulled your paintings down
They wouldn't read your writing
And they banned you from the town
But they couldn't stop you dreaming
And the victory you have won
For you sowed the seeds of freedom
In your daughters and your sons

In your daughters and your sons
In your daughters and your sons
You sowed the seeds of freedom
In your daughters and your sons

Well your weary smile it proudly hides
The chain marks on your hands
As you bravely strive to realise
The rights of every man
And though your body's bent and low
A victory you have won
For you sowed the seeds of justice
In your daughters and your sons

In your daughters and your sons
In your daughters and your sons
You sowed the seeds of justice
In your daughters and your sons

Well, I don't know your religion
But one day I heard you pray
For a world where everyone can work
And children can play
And though you never got your share
Of the fruits that you have won
You sowed the seeds of equality
In your daughters and your sons

In your daughters and your sons
In your daughters and your sons
You sowed the seeds of freedom
In your daughters and your sons

Well, they taunted you in Belfast
And they tortured you in Spain
And in that Warsaw ghetto
Where they tied you up in chains
In Vietnam and in Chili
Where they came with tanks and guns
It's there you sowed the seeds of peace
In your daughters and your sons

In your daughters and your sons
In your daughters and your sons
You sowed the seeds of freedom
In your daughters and your sons

And now your music's playing
And the writings on the wall
And all the dreams you painted
Can be seen by one and all
And now you've got them thinking
And the future's just begun
For you sowed the seeds of freedom
In your daughters and your sons

In your daughters and your sons
In your daughters and your sons
You sowed the seeds of freedom
In your daughters and your sons

Happy 100th Birthday Count Basie

Today is the 100th birthday of the innovative Swing Band leader and jazz pianist William Count Basie. Heavily influenced by the Blues, his band introduced a simpler style than audiences were used to from contemporary Big Band leader Duke Ellington that incorporated short riffs in a bluesy call and response. This combined with the light cymbal based drumming of Jo Joness which loosened the rhythm, and put the musical emphasis on the bass and Basie's piano, became the Count Basie distintive style of Swing. And audiences loved it.

The Count was not a composer of the caliber of The Duke, in fact he wasn't a composer at all. His genius was as a band leader and arranger.

Influenced early on by the likes of Earl Hines, Teddy Wilson and Fats Waller, his bluesy Swing style attracted some of the big names in Jazz like the vocalists Tony Bennet, Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan, Bing Crosby and Sammy Davis Jr and musicians like saxophonists Frank Foster and Eddie Lockjaw Davis, and trumpeters Joe Newman and Thad Jones.

To commemorate his 100th birthday some significant compilations of his work are being issued

In celebration of William "Count" Basie's centennial, Blue Note Records is releasing a pair of two-disc sets. A reissue of Roulette Records' "The Count Basie Story" and the newly compiled "Count Basie & Friends 100th Birthday Bash" are due Tuesday (Aug. 24), three days after the legendary big band leader's birthdate.

Compiled by Billy Vera and Michael Cuscuna, "Basie & Friends" lines up 28 tracks from the late 1950s. Most were released through Roulette, a label owned by Morris Levy, who also owned New York's Birdland, a regular venue for Basie and His Orchestra.

Take the day off, get your dancing shoes on and Swing.

And remember the Count.

It had to be you
It had to be you
I wandered around
And finally found
Somebody who
Could make me be true
Could make me be blue.
Or even be glad
Just to be sad
Thinking of you.

Some others I've seen,
Might never mean.
Might never be cross,
Or try to be boss,
But they wouldn't do.
For nobody else gave me a thrill,
With all your faults I love you still.
It had to be you, wonderful you,
It had to be you.

-Gus Kahn, Isham Jones

Rappin' Baghdad

Soldiers Produce Beats from Trailer Studio

By Spc. Marie Whitney
122nd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment

CAMP VICTORY NORTH, Baghdad, Iraq— “When it was time to come out here, I knew there wasn’t going to be much going on for the year. And everyone else I knew was bringing their X boxes and stuff. So I took my tax return and bought myself a mixer, a keyboard and microphone,” said Spc. Robert Burke of Headquarters Company, 1st Cavalry Division. Spc. Adrian "Tuck" Tucker of Headquarters Company, 1st Cavalry Division freestyles on the mic in the studio of Spc. Robert "Sticky" Burke, also of HHC, 1st Cav. Div., Tucker, Burke and Spc. Bryan Clark have a rap group called Eclectic that they began while in Baghdad.

With this equipment, Burke set up a modest recording studio inside his trailer, out of which he and some of his friends from HHC, 1st Cav. Div. record music for their rap group, Eclectic.

Burke is the producer for their band, creating beats, recording the voice tracks and editing to create their final products. Turning out a new beat every couple of days isn’t a struggle for Burke, who has been creating beats back home since 2000. “Everything has a certain mood to it,” he said. “One night I was going over the beats I had started in Kuwait and when we first got here to Iraq. You can hear the change in what I was feeling every time.” Spc. Robert "Sticky" Burke, Headquarters Company, 1st Cavalry Division, looks for a good beat to freestyle to from the group of beats that he has created on his computer. Burke is the producer for a rap group called Eclectic.

Center stage one last time

Ray Charles' L.A. Funeral a Joyous Celebration

Fri Jun 18, 2004 06:37 PM ET

By Dean Goodman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Ray Charles took center stage one last time on Friday as more than 1,500 people, including Stevie Wonder, Clint Eastwood and B.B. King, celebrated the life of the late "genius of soul" with claps, cheers and shouts of joy.

Charles, who died of liver disease last Thursday, aged 73, was sent off with a two-hour service -- more joyful than mournful -- at which Wonder and King both performed, as well as saxophone player David "Fathead" Newman, country icons Glen Campbell and Willie Nelson and jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis.

"We're here to celebrate today, so it's all right if you just clap your hands, stomp your feet and get down with the Lord," the Rev. Robert Robinson, Sr., one of Charles' 12 children, exclaimed at the outset.

"If you would do something for my family today, why don't you stand on your feet and give God your praise! We're here to celebrate God today!"